Indian Railway In Debt Trap? Earnings Down by Rs 3000 cr.

Indian Railways is heading in to a debt trap but Suresh Prabhu seems busy just on social media. Offical figures suggest that there has been massive drop in the income of Indian Railways in all its 17 zones. The question is why did it happen? and Does this Government has any plan to stop the slide.

Total gross earnings of Indian Railways for the April to December 2016 period is Rs 133641 crore which is about Rs 3,000 crore lower than in the corresponding period in 2015.

Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu actively claims progress in different sectors of the Indian Railways on social media, the truth is that Indian Railways is rapidly approaching a debt trap. The biggest problem is that its backbone has been hit hard – returns from freight are down drastically.

The Western Railways has the dubious honour of contributing most to the decline in earnings up till December 2016. At Rs 7250 crore, it registered a Rs 2000 crore dip in freight earnings as compared to April-December 2015. The other zones that underperformed as regards freight earnings last year, from April to December, include South Central Railways (earnings dipped by Rs 1333 crore as compared to the corresponding period in 2015); West Central Railways (Rs 723 crore fall), South Eastern Railways (611.13 crore) and Northern Railway (567.70 crore). “Due to decrease in loading of coal , overall freight revenue has gone down , but we are trying hard to review it,” said Anil Saxena, ADG (publicity), Indian Railways.

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It would be interesting to assess whether the drop in Indian Railways earning has any correlation with the demonetization of Rs 500 and Rs 1000 notes as this did impended a sharp drop in economic interactions in various sector.